Highlights
- Nickelodeon's rapid release of sequels for its party games leaves players with little reason to invest in the studio's future titles.
- The lack of support and post-launch updates for Nickelodeon's games hampers their potential success and longevity.
- Releasing sequels too closely together, without focusing on improving and supporting the previous games, may hurt the long-term prospects of Nickelodeon's franchises.
Over the past couple of years, it seems like Nickelodeon has been desperately trying to get a new party game off the ground. Using its massive catalog of animated franchises, it has been throwing its characters into all sorts of wild experiences in hopes that players flock to it. While most of these games have been enjoyable, the sheer amount of releases has put future Nickelodeon titles in a bit of a tough spot.
Party games and online experiences tend to need a little bit of time and support to build up their audiences, but Nickelodeon has not really given its games that time. Instead of making a game like Nickelodeon Kart Racers the best it can be, it quickly moves onto the sequel and leaves the previous one behind. This has been the trend for a couple of years now, and it gives players little reason to buy into whatever the studio does next with its characters.
Nick is Releasing Way Too Many Games
It seems like every major studio wants to capture the success of games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While some are crafting original experiences like Brawlhalla, others are just tossing their most popular IPs into massive ensemble games. Warner Bros. did it with MultiVersus, Disney has done it with Disney Speedstorm, and Nickelodeon has been doing it with loads of different franchises.
In 2018, Nickelodeon kicked off its first modern crossover franchise with the release of Nickelodeon Kart Racers. The game was developed by Bamtang Games, and it brought some of Nick's most iconic franchises to the racing genre. It felt like the studio's version of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but it seemed to fall short of reaching those heights. The game had some solid racing gameplay, but it was lacking in pretty much every other area.
Instead of trying to build out Nickelodeon Kart Racers to make it a stronger game, the studio quickly got to work on the sequel. Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix would launch only two years later and improve upon many of the first game's shortcomings. Some players may have thought the studio would focus on making this game even better, but Bamtang Games chose to focus on a sequel instead. The studio would then repeat the process all over again two years later with Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway.
Bamtang Games has been churning out Nickelodeon Kart Racers games and has done little to actually support them post-launch, and it is not the only Nickelodeon franchise to do that. Ludosity and Fair Play Labs would end up releasing Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl in 2021 and is now set to release its sequel only two years later. It only supported the previous game with three DLC fighters and the occasional update, and it will likely do the same thing with the sequel.
It just seems like a strange choice to release these sequels so close to each other. Super Smash Bros. did not get successful because Nintendo released a new game every year, it became a sensation because the studio spaced out releases and has been supporting the newer ones with a slew of content updates. This has helped it build its audience and gives players a reason to actually buy these titles. Nickelodeon has not given players that reason, and that could hurt these franchises in the long run.
Potential players may not want to purchase whatever Nickelodeon does next because they know that the game will just be dropped in favor of a sequel. The studios will not do enough to keep the game alive, the budgets will be incredibly low, and the game's flaws will not be fixed until a sequel releases. This does not seem like a sustainable business model, and the appeal of these characters may only carry Nickelodeon so far.
